According to The Daily Mail, Manchester City are closing in on the £75 million transfer of Leicester City winger Riyad Mahrez, with manager Pep Guardiola looking to wrap the deal up by the end of the week.
The 27-year old Algerian nearly joined City in the January transfer window, before the deal fell through, prompting Mahrez to effectively go on strike for a month, before eventually backing down and returning to the Leicester team.
Now it looks like he is about to get his long wished-for move, with City ready to do their transfer business early, to avoid getting caught in bidding wars towards the end of the window.
One advantage for City of signing Mahrez is that will not be at the World Cup, so will enjoy a full pre-season and a chance to acclimatise to his new manager’s methods.
City will take part in a US tour in July, with matches scheduled in Chicago, New York and Miami.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.